We present the results of an ASCA observation of the LINER NGC 4579 .
A point-like X-ray source is detected at the nucleus with a 2–10 keV luminosity of 1.5 \times 10 ^ { 41 } ergs s ^ { -1 } assuming a distance of 16.8 Mpc .
The X-ray spectrum is represented by a combination of a power-law with a photon index of \sim 1.7 and soft thermal component with kT \sim 0.9 keV .
An iron K emission line is detected at 6.73 \pm 0.13 keV ( rest frame ) with an equivalent width of 490 ^ { +180 } _ { -190 } eV and is statistically significant at more than 99.9 % confidence .
The line center energy is consistent with Helium-like iron and is significantly higher than 6.4 keV which is expected from fluorescence by ” cold ” ( or a lower ionization state of ) iron .
The iron line profile shows no significant red tail in contrast to Seyfert 1 galaxies although the statistics are limited .
The line center energy , equivalent width , and profile are consistent with an origin in an ionized accretion disk .
However the large mass accretion rate necessary to ionize the accretion disk is not consistent with the observed luminosity and normal accretion models .